a wandering traveller: corn ice cream

Well, I forgot my agenda with notes about what to include so hopefully this letter won't be too boring! This week went by quickly! And it didn't help me to know it was my last week in this area. Yup, about a week and a half ago the President told me that I would have cambios and be leaving the area. I was hoping to stay in this zone/stake but I have transfers with my luggage which means I will be leaving this city. I can either go to my old zone, Oriental, to a different ward, or I can go to the third zone, La Perla, which is what I'm hoping for. But tomorrow we have cambios and we'll find out then!

Some quick stories from last week! We were teaching our recent converts, Perla and Vidal (they got baptized last Sunday), and Perla told us she had something she had to tell us, and that we would be proud. We were confused and asked why. Apparently when they were in the street, she heard her daughters, Paula and Perla say they want to be missionaries. Paula said she was Hermana Ingram and Perla quickly said she was Hermana Bennett, because she has curly hair too! While they were walking home, they imitated our accents, said "wow" and "uh" a lot! Later in the house they got their scriptures out and said "we have a message to share about Jesus" and "we are going to read, uh, a scripture in . . ." and so on! It was hilarious to hear her tell us the story and she tried to get her daughters to do it, but they were too shy. I am going to miss them when I leave!

The sisters enjoying artisanal Mexican ice cream—including a corn flavor!

Also this week we watched Women's Conference—in Spanish! It was so gratifying to be able to understand nearly all of it, especially since there was so many good stories! One I want to share is from President Uchtdorf's talk, which was amazing, as usual. He talked about living the Gospel and well, I'll just quote him!

“Part of our challenge is, I think, that we imagine that God has all of His blessings locked in a huge cloud up in heaven, refusing to give them to us unless we comply with some strict, paternalistic requirements He has set up. But the commandments aren’t like that at all. In reality, Heavenly Father is constantly raining blessings upon us. It is our fear, doubt, and sin that, like an umbrella, block these blessings from reaching us.” (Read the entire talk: https://www.lds.org/church/news/president-uchtdorf-live-the-gospel-joyful?lang=eng)

I believe this 100%. He is always blessing us and we have to take the time to recognize those blessings and do our part to make sure we keep receiving them. Sometimes we think, "well I won't receive that blessing, I'm not good enough, or doing enough, I'm not perfect." All I will say is this: we are always enough, we are His children and if we do our part, He has to do His, he is obligated. So don't worry, be happy! Live the Gospel and reap all the blessings He has prepared for you. And get ready for General Conference this weekend! It will be amazing.

So, yesterday we finally got a hold of our President and got permission to go to Zocolo, downtown Mexico City, today! We had tried calling him last week and even planned things out with a family to take us. We didn't think we were going to be able to go and I was so sad. But he told us to go ahead so we called up the family and this morning after our zone meeting we drove into the heart of Mexico City. It was amazing and such an adventure! The Lopez family had planned to take us but Omar, the dad, ended up dropping us off (Patricia and us) and later picked us up. Central is amazing. A man named Porfirio Diaz, when he was President, redesigned Mexico City to be like European cities, Paris in particular. It felt like we were on vacation in a totally different world. It was just incredible! She took us to churches, for breakfast, to Bellas Artes (a center for music and the arts), the first post office in Mexico, the main cathedral in Zocolo, and to see ruins of the ancient templo mayor. Apparently when the Hispanics came to Mexico, they destroyed and built Catholic churches on top of all the pyramids. So under every church in the city, there is a pyramid underneath. She also took us to a fancy department store that has a ceiling of stained glass. It is breathtaking! We saw a vertical garden, complete with bicycles, and we ended with a special treat: frozen yogurt from my favorite chain! Yup, they have YogurtLand in Mexico!! I'll send some photos today and hopefully send some more next week!